I know that wood routing and plasma cutting do not normally go hand in hand. I am planning on building a plasma machine, but until then; here is what I did:
I had a break in the sign making business for a few days so I made a replacment slat table for my normal MDF spoil board. I also made a floating head for the torch that replaced my normal router mount. Then it was just a matter of splicing into my Miller plasma cutter so that Mach 3 could turn the torch on/off. My router table is all steel and based on the JGRO design (don't try this with an MDF router). I am attaching a couple of before and after photos.
Lessons learned:
1) never fire the torch until you have all the sawdust cleaned up.
2) THC is a requirement for anything less than 16 ga.
3) ACME thread without gear reduction just can't give you the speed you need for plasma cuts
4) I thought sawdust was a problem until the plasma dust and smoke started rolling...a water table would be nice.
5) Trust Weldtutor...he knows what he is doing.
6) Mach 3 and SheetCAM are must haves.
The cuts are excellent with hardly any slag to clean up. I will be using this machine to cut parts for my larger plasma table in the near future and then I will return this unit to wood routing capability.
Thanks again Weldtutor.
drafterman